The Turnbo Manuscripts

by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925

REMARKABLE ESCAPE OF A PIG FROM THE TALONS OF AN EAGLE
By S. C. Turnbo

An interesting account of an eagle catching a young pig was told me by
Mrs. Rhoda Sanders, daughter of Tom Rice. Mrs. Sanders is the wife of Henry
Sanders, a well known citizen of near Gainesville, Missouri.

Mrs. Sanders said that her father settled near Peases Mill, Richland Post
Office, in Douglas County, Mo., in 1872. Among his stock was a bunch of
pigs which were about one month old. One day the old sow and pigs were near
the house. A grey eagle darted down among the pigs and picked up a spotted
one with claws and rose with the little squealing animal to the top of a
tall pine tree and lit in the highest part of it. Just as the eagle lit
it dropped the pig and as the pig was falling the eagle darted after it.
A small bushy-top tree stood under the bows of the pine and when the pig
struck in among the limbs of the small tree it checked its speed in falling
so rapid and the eagle caught it again. But the little grunter freed itself
and fell 20 feet to the ground. The pine tree was estimated to be 300 feet
tall. When the pig dropped to the ground my father scared the eagle away
and picked up the pig and found that it was severely wounded by the big
birds claws. My father brought the pig to the house and dressed its
wounds and poured turpentine into the gashes and cared for the little animal
until the wounds had healed and fully recovered from the effects of its
remarkable escape from death. This same pig thrived until it made a fine
hog and my father fattened it and killed it, converting the meat into a
fine lot of bacon. My father died at Buffalo in Dallas County, Mo., in 1879,
and is buried in the cemetery there," said Mrs. Sanders.